Idaho Champion Gold Mines Canada, a discovery-focused gold exploration company, has a signed Decision Memorandum from the US Forest Service that approves exploratory drilling on the Sally claim block.
Image: Map shows the Sally Claims Location within the Baner Project Photo: Courtesy of Idaho Champion Gold Mines.
See Idaho Champion’s press release October 15, 2018 on the purchase of the Sally clams. Idaho Champion is now finalizing plans to commence the 2019 drill program on their claims (see Fig 1). Idaho Champion will issue a future press release on details of the 2019 drill program. The goal of the 2019 drill program is to continue the success of 2018 in drilling the Orogrande Shear Zone.
Jonathan Buick, Champion’s President and CEO, explains that: “In receipt of the drilling permit, we will look to launch an exploration program to commence in early summer. We believe that a drill program on the Sally Claims offer us the best opportunity to intercept the structure which we identified last year during our exploration program which saw Idaho’s newest gold discovery.”
The Baner Project is located within the Orogrande shear zone (OSZ), a 20-kilometer-long and up to 1 kilometer wide regional shear zone located in Central Idaho. The OSZ resembles a series of grabens composed of metamorphosed Proterozoic belt sedimentary rocks, Cretaceous Idaho batholith intruded by Tertiary rhyolites and dacitic dikes. The BC claim block covers a series of parallel shear zones on the eastern margin of the OSZ. Hydrothermal alteration is spatially associated with the OSZ and consists of silicification, seritization, and chloritization. Mineralization is hosted by three types of broadly defined deposit types; Tertiary epithermal deposits, Cretaceous intrusive related gold systems and orogenic shear zone deposits hosted within the batholith. Mineralization includes disseminated low-grade precious metal mineralization in associated stockwork veins, hydraulic breccias and extensive widespread alteration; high-grade gold associated with discreet structurally controlled quartz veins and silicified zones.
The Baner/Sally Project is in the central Idaho Gold Belt, 8 km south of Elk City, Idaho. Elk City is an historic gold mining region dating back to the 1860s and once supported more than 20 underground mines and extensive placer operations. During the 1930’s there were three cyanide gold mills along Crooked River processing open pit and underground sulfide ore. Exploration in the district during the 1980’s and 1990’s included Cypress-Amax, Kinross Gold, and Bema Gold primarily focused on near-surface bulk-tonnage gold potential. Premium Exploration conducted extensive drilling, soil sampling, and airborne and surface geophysics in the 2010 era. Currently a Finnish gold producer, Endomines AB is developing the Friday project at Orogrande into an underground gold operation and is constructing a gold processing mill.
Source: Company Press Release.